My adventures in knitting

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Wow, I can’t believe I have another finished object! Well technically it’s not quite finished, I still need to add the trim to the neck and armholes but I just couldn’t wait to post about it. I also still need to wash and block it. I’m pretty happy with the outcome of this Picovoli top and the yarn I chose (Cascade Ultra Pima in Pewter 3759) – it’s pretty hard to photograph especially with my phone on a dark December evening but you get the gist.

I wasn’t quite feeling the picot trim so I decided to use mock cable instead. I’ll be using the same trim for the neck and arms.

It’s been almost a year since I’ve been able to knit for any long period of time due to my ‘golfers elbow’ (you can read about it here) and I really wanted to get something finished. I have several WIPs (ehem, that may be an understatement) I haven’t finished so you would think I’d pick up one of those and take care of business but, no…

I decided I needed a quick project that I could start and finish in about a week, so I went to my local Walmart, picked up 2 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Purple Martin and found a nice cable scarf pattern on Ravelry. As luck would have it, we had a 7 hour drive to Maryland this past week so there was plenty of time to work on this project and it paid off; I finished the final stitches and cast off on the ride back home to SC. The only down side is I lost my cable needle on the way home – I can only guess it was on my lap when I got out of the car because I’ve searched that car high and low and it’s nowhere to be found. I had to finish the last 4 cable patterns using the temple/arm of my husband’s reading glasses to hold the stitches! LOL!

I still need to wash & block it and weave in the ends but I couldn’t wait to post about it! Hopefully this is the start of many finished objects to come😉

I can’t believe my last post was in March…wow! I’m happy to report that my elbow is getting better, so much so that I have been doing a little knitting each day for the past couple of weeks. I didn’t want to post anything for fear of jinxing myself but I think I have FINALLY turned a corner – woohoo!

Last year I somehow hurt my elbow – after several weeks of suffering, I finally went to the doctor and got diagnosed. They call it golfer’s elbow, the funny thing is I don’t golf! When I started reading about it I found that knitting can cause it as well, I still laugh when I think that I could actually get injured by knitting – LOL! The first suggestion was to get a compression band and wear that everyday – and stop knitting! If it didn’t get better my next option would be to consider surgery – what? NO WAY!

I got the compression band and wore it all the time and eventually, reluctantly stopped knitting. Until a few weeks ago, I had not done any knitting for over 5 months! I wanted to test the waters to see if I could do just a little knitting without my elbow hurting, so a few weeks ago I decided I would do just one round on each of my two WIPs and see how I felt the next day. I had no issues so I kept that up for about a week and for the last two nights I’ve done a few extra rounds on each. I’m so happy that I’m finally able to knit without any elbow pain!!! I don’t want to push too much, too soon so I’ll keep it to a minimum; but at least I feel better knowing that I’m making some progress :-)

I’m almost done with the mismatched socks I started over a year ago (!), just need to finish the cuff and cast off

I have been woefully absent from my knitting blog because I haven’t been knitting :-( I was having a problem with the tendon in my elbow (golfer’s elbow they call it) and I just haven’t been able to knit. I got an elbow band and have been wearing it almost every day in hopes it would speed the healing process. I did try to knit a few times while wearing it but I found that my elbow would hurt later so I decided to abandon knitting altogether until it heals.

Depending on what you read on the internet it can take up to six months to heal (what?!) but I can tell that it’s getting better and it’s only been about three months – so I can only hope I’ll be able to start knitting again here soon. I still have two knitting projects sitting in plain sight and each time I walk by I just shake my head because it makes me so sad :-( I’ve been good about not trying to force it but I really have the urge to finish up these projects and start something new. However I know I need to wait at least another month before I make an attempt.

Until then, I’ll continue to keep up with the blogs from other knitters and live vicariously through them…

I was tired of my knitting projects sitting out in the open or stuffed in a closet so I decided I would try to make a tote bag to carry and store my project. I found a great tutorial for a reversible tote and went to Walmart to find some clearance fabric (I didn’t want to buy expensive fabric for my experiment!). I found two that I liked and bought a yard of each ($3.oo/yard). Over the past two days made these:

The first bag is blue paisley on the outside and red hearts on the inside. I didn’t follow the instructions on this first attempt thinking “I know how to do this”…ha, was I ever wrong! I completed the bag but it’s not reversible and the handles are very unattractive.

The second bag is a little bigger and I made sure I followed the instructions this time! I also made a modification by adding interfacing to the outside fabric so the bag will stand up very well on it’s own. I have to say that it was pretty difficult turning the work right-side out with the interfacing but I finally got it done.

Here are the bags side by side so you can tell the size difference. All in all I’m pretty happy with them, I learned how to use interfacing and I also learned that thread tension is pretty important to the finishing! I will definitely make more of these and hopefully keep getting better each time.

Ok so with that said, do you think I’ve stopped knitting…well of course not! I’ve got socks on the needles, a tank top I started in October and I still haven’t finished the Sophisticate sweater intended for my grandson {{{lowers head in shame}}}.

Yes, the socks I’m working on are two different colors because I only have one skein of each color and just couldn’t figure out how to knit two socks off of one skein at the same time…so when I’m done I’ll have one of each color, then I’ll immediately cast on the mates!

The tank is Picovoli by Grumperina, I started on this in October after going to my LYS where I found Cascade Ultra Pima cotton in Pewter and just couldn’t resist.

I guess I’ll just keep plugging away, taking necessary breaks, until I get one of my many projects finished.